In the era of the #MeToo movement, the issue of consent is front and centre on university campuses. As students prepare to go back to school this week, one fraternity is ensuring its members know exactly what that means. “We want to make sure that everyone is aware on campus that we are taking those initiatives,” said Brett Gilmore, president of Concordia’s Tau Kappa Epsilon chapter. Gilmore said he knows fraternities and sororities can get a bad rap, but he wants members of TKE to be leaders – like their slogan: ‘Better men for a better world.’ “Seeing that we're not just a bunch of guys that only care about drinking and partying. We're actually striving for higher success and being a role model and setting that standard for a safe environment on campus,” he said. Consent training is already provided to the Intrafraternity Council, a governing body for fraternities and sororities, explained Andrew Woodall, Concordia’s dean of students. “The training involves the basics of alcohol, the basics of drugs, the basics of bystander intervention and then consent. It's basically those four things that are relevant to one training,” he said. But not every fraternity and sorority member gets that training directly from the university, the IFC explained. Gilmore wants to ensure that his frat takes that extra step. “(We’re) literally setting a standard across Concordia in the different faculties – engineering, business, fine arts, art history and sciences – and just making sure that everyone is self-aware of the situation that's going on,” he said. “I think it’s amazing,” said Woodall. “I think they recognize the fact that frats and sororities can have bad names. And I think they recognize that and they're proactively saying, ‘We want to change the way others perceive us.’” Gilmore is hoping that by January, all of his members will have received full education in consent.
